Clash of the Twin Towers

Presentation by

Vanamali.T
Raaj Kumar.S
Vinoth Kumar.M
 Clash of the Twin Towers
 Location: New York City;  Death(s) :2,976 victims and
Arlington County, Virginia; 19 hijackers
and near Shanksville,  Injured: 6,000+
Pennsylvania.  Belligerent: Al-Qaeda led by
 Date :Tuesday, September 11, Osama bin Laden.
2001 8:46 am 
 Attack type: Aircraft
hijacking, mass murder,
suicide attack, Terrorism
 Introduction to Twin towers
 The World Trade Center (WTC) was a complex of seven buildings in
New York City.
 The original World Trade Center was designed by Minoru Yamasaki in
the early 1960s using a tube-frame structural design for the twin 110-
story towers.
 In gaining approval for the project, the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey agreed to take over the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad
which became the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH).
 The North Tower (1) was completed in December 1970 and the South
Tower (2) was finished in July 1971.
 The construction project involved excavating a large amount of
material which was used in making Battery Park City on the west side
of Lower Manhattan.
 The complex was located in the heart of New York City's and contained
13.4 million square feet (1.24 million m²) of office space.
 The Windows on the World restaurant was located on the 106th
and 107th floors of 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower)while
the Top of the World observation deck was located on the 107th
floor of 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower).
 Other World Trade Center buildings included the Marriott World
Trade Center; 4 World Trade Center; 5 World Trade Center; 6 World
Trade Center, which housed the United States Customs.
 All of these buildings were built between 1975 and 1981.
 The final building constructed was 7 World Trade Center, which
was built in 1985.
 The World Trade Center experienced a fire on February 13, 1975
and a bombing on February 26, 1993.
 In 1998, the Port Authority decided to privatize the World Trade
Center, leasing the buildings to a private company to manage, and
awarded the lease to Silverstein Properties in July 2001.
 Planning and Construction
 The idea of establishing a World Trade Center in New York City was first
proposed in 1946.
 The New York State Legislature passed a bill authorizing New York
Governor Thomas E. Dewey to begin developing plans for the project but
the plans were put on hold in 1949.
 During the late 1940s and 1950s, economic growth in New York City was
concentrated in Midtown Manhattan, while Lower Manhattan was left out.
To help stimulate urban renewal, David Rockefeller suggested that the Port
Authority build a World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
 Initial plans, made public in 1961, identified a site along the East River for
the World Trade Center.
 As a bi-state agency, the Port Authority required approval for new projects
from the governors of both New York and New Jersey. New Jersey Governor
Robert B. Meyner objected to New York getting a $335 million project and
at the end of 1961, he was pushed to a situation to accept the project.
• The Port Authority also decided to move the World Trade
Center project to the Hudson Terminal building site on the west
side of Lower Manhattan.
• With the new location and Port Authority acquisition of the
H&M Railroad, New Jersey agreed to support the World Trade
Center project.
• Approval was also needed from New York City Mayor John
Lindsay and the New York City Council.
• Disagreements with the city centered on tax issues.
• On August 3, 1966, an agreement was reached that the Port
Authority would make annual payments to the City in lieu of
taxes for the portion of the World Trade Center leased to private
tenants.
• In subsequent years, the payments would rise as the real estate
tax rate increased.
 Architectural Design
 On September 20, 1962, the Port Authority announced the selection of
Minoru Yamasaki as lead architect and Emery Roth & Sons as associate
architects.
 Yamasaki devised the plan to incorporate twin towers; Yamasaki's
original plan called for the towers to be 80 stories tall.
 To meet the Port Authority's requirement for 10 million square feet
(930,000 m²) of office space, the buildings would each have to be 110
stories tall.
 A major limiting factor in building height is the issue of elevators.
 Yamasaki and the engineers decided to use a new system with sky
lobbies; floors where people could switch from a large-capacity
express elevator which serves the sky lobbies, to a local elevator that
goes to each floor in a section.
 Altogether, the World Trade Center had 95 express and local elevators.
 Yamasaki's design for the World Trade Center, unveiled to the
public on January 18, 1964, called for a square plan approximately
207 feet (63 m) in dimension on each side.
 The buildings were designed with narrow office windows
18 inches (46 cm) wide, which reflected Yamasaki's fear of heights
as well as his desire to make building occupants feel secure.
 Yamasaki's design included building facades sheathed in
aluminum-alloy.
 In addition to the twin towers, the plan for the World Trade Center
complex included four other low-rise buildings which were built in
the early 1970s.
 The 47-story 7 World Trade Center building was added in the
1980s to the north of the main complex.
 Altogether, the main World Trade Center complex occupied a
16 acres (65,000 m2).
World Trading Centre Site Building Arrangements
 Construction
• In March 1965, the Port Authority began acquiring property at
the World Trade Center site.
• Demolition work began on March 21, 1966 to clear thirteen
square blocks of low rise buildings in Radio Row for
construction of the World Trade Center.
• The site of the World Trade Center was located on landfill with
the bedrock located 65 feet (20 m) below.
• To construct the World Trade Center, it was necessary to build a
bathtub with a slurry wall around the West Street side of the
site, to keep water from the Hudson River out.
• It took fourteen months for the slurry wall to be completed.
• In January 1967, the Port Authority awarded $74 million in
contracts to various steel suppliers, and Karl Koch was hired to
erect the steel. Tishman Realty & Construction was hired in
February 1967 to oversee construction of the project.
• Construction work began on the North Tower in August 1968;
construction on the South Tower was underway by January 1969.
• The topping out ceremony of 1 WTC (North Tower) took place on
December 23, 1970, while 2 WTC's ceremony (South Tower)
occurred later on July 19, 1971.
• When the World Trade Center twin towers were completed, the
total costs to the Port Authority had reached $900 million.
• The ribbon cutting ceremony was on April 4, 1973.
Typical Floor Layout and Elevator Arrangements
 The Attack
 The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks.
 On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger
jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the
Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on
board and many others working in the buildings.
 Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and
damaging others.
 The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia,
just outside Washington, D.C.
 The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania
after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of
the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C.
There were no survivors from any of the flights.
 Early on the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers
took control of four commercial airliners en route to San
Francisco and Los Angeles from Boston, Newark, and
Washington, D.C. (Washington Dulles International Airport).
 At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 was crashed into the
World Trade Center's North Tower, followed by United Airlines
Flight 175 which hit the South Tower at 9:03 a.m.
 Another group of hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into
the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.
 A fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near
Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m, after the passengers on
board engaged in a fight with the hijackers.
 During the hijacking of the airplanes, the hijackers used
weapons to stab and kill aircraft pilots, flight attendants and
passengers.
 Reports from phone callers from the planes indicated that
knives were used by the hijackers to stab attendants and in at
least one case, a passenger, during two of the hijackings.
 Some passengers were able to make phone calls using the cabin
airphone service and mobile phones, and provide details,
including that several hijackers were aboard each plane, that
mace or other form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas
or pepper spray was used, and that some people aboard had
been stabbed.
 Damage
Along with the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself,
numerous other buildings at the World Trade Center site were destroyed
or badly damaged, including 7 World Trade Center, 6 World Trade Center,
5 World Trade Center, 4 World Trade Center, the Marriott World Trade
Center (3 WTC), and the World Financial Center complex and St.
Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.
The fall of the Twin Towers represented the only examples of total
progressive collapse of steel-framed structures in history.
The Pentagon damaged by fire and partly collapsed.
The Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade
Center complex was later condemned due to the uninhabitable, toxic
conditions inside the office tower, and is undergoing deconstruction.
 The Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30
West Broadway was also condemned due to extensive damage in the
attacks, and is slated for deconstruction.
 Other neighboring buildings including 90 West Street and the
Verizon Building suffered major damage, but have since been
restored.
 World Financial Center buildings, One Liberty Plaza, the
Millenium Hilton, and 90 Church Street had moderate damage.
 They have since been restored. Communications equipment on
top of the North Tower, including broadcast radio, television and
two-way radio antenna towers, was also destroyed, but media
stations were quickly able to reroute signals and resume
broadcasts.
 In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely
damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.
 Rescue and Recovery
 The Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) quickly deployed
200 units (half of the department) to the site, whose efforts
were supplemented by numerous off-duty firefighters.
 The New York Police Department (NYPD) sent Emergency
Service Units (ESU) and other police personnel, along with
deploying its aviation unit.
 Once on the scene, the FDNY, NYPD, and Port Authority police
did not coordinate efforts, and ended up performing redundant
searches for civilians.
 As conditions deteriorated, the NYPD aviation unit relayed
information to police commanders, who issued orders for its
personnel to evacuate the towers; most NYPD officers were able
to safely evacuate before the buildings collapsed.
 With separate command posts set up and incompatible radio
communications between the agencies, warnings were not
passed along to FDNY commanders.
 After the first tower collapsed, FDNY commanders did issue
evacuation warnings, however, due to technical difficulties with
malfunctioning radio repeater systems, many firefighters never
heard the evacuation orders. 9-1-1 dispatchers also received
information from callers that was not passed along to
commanders on the scene.
 Within hours of the attack, a substantial search and rescue
operation was launched.
 After months of around-the-clock operations, the World Trade
Center site was cleared by the end of May 2002.
 Attackers and their background
 Within hours of the attacks, the FBI was able to determine the
names and in many cases the personal details of the suspected
pilots and hijackers.
 Mohamed Atta, from Egypt, was the ringleader of the 19
hijackers and one of the pilots.
 Atta died in the attack along with the other hijackers, but his
luggage, which did not make the connection from his Portland
flight onto Flight 11, contained papers that revealed the identity
of all 19 hijackers (all men), and other important clues about
their plans, motives, and backgrounds.
 By midday, the National Security Agency had intercepted
communications that pointed to Osama bin Laden, as did
German intelligence agencies.
 On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photos of the 19
hijackers, along with information about the possible
nationalities and aliases of many. Fifteen of the hijackers were
from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from
Egypt (Atta), and one from Lebanon.
 Author Laurie Mylroie, writing in the conservative political
magazine The American Spectator in 2006, argues that Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed and his family are the primary architects of
9/11 and similar attacks, and that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's
association with Osama bin Laden is secondary and that al-
Qaeda's claim of responsibility for the attack is after the fact and
opportunistic.
 Motive for the attacks
 The motives for the attacks include the presence of the U.S. in
Saudi Arabia, the support of Israel by the U.S., and the sanctions
against Iraq.
 These motives were explicitly state by Al-Qaeda in
proclamations before the attacks.
 After the attacks, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri published
additional video tapes and audio tapes, some of which repeated
those reasons for the attacks.
 Two particularly important publications were bin Laden's 2002
"Letter to America "and a 2004 video tape by bin Laden.
 In addition to direct pronouncements by bin Laden and Al-
Qaeda, numerous political analysts have postulated motivations
for the attacks.
 The continued presence of US troops after the Gulf War in Saudi
Arabia was one of the stated motivations behind the September
11th terrorist attacks, the Khobar Towers bombing.
 In 1996, Bin Laden issued a fatwa, calling for American troops
to get out of Saudi Arabia.
 In the 1998 fatwa, Al-Qaeda wrote " for over seven years the
United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the
holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches,
dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its
neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a
spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim
peoples."
 In the December 1999 interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai, bin
Laden said he felt that Americans were "too near to Mecca" and
considered this a provocation to the entire Muslim world.
 In his November 2002 "Letter to America", Bin Laden described the
United States' support of Israel as a motivation: "The creation and
continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the
leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and
prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel
is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands
have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay
its price, and pay for it heavily.“
 In the 1998 fatwa, Al Qaeda identified the Iraq sanctions as a reason to
kill Americans: "despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi
people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number
of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the
Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as
though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed
after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation....On that
basis, and in compliance with Allah's order, we issue the following
fatwa to all Muslims:The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—
civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim..."
 In 2004 and 2010, Bin Laden again repeated the connection
between the September 11 attacks and the support of Israel by
the United States.
 In addition to the motives published by Al Qaeda, analysts have
suggested other motives, including humiliation resulting from
the Islamic world falling behind the Western world - this
discrepancy made especially visible due to recent globalisation.
 Another speculated motive was the desire to provoke the U.S.
into a broader war against the Islamic world, with the hope of
motivating more allies to support Al Qaeda
 Planning of the attacks
 The idea for the September 11 plot came from Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed, who first presented the idea to Osama bin Laden in 1996.
 At that point, Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were in a period of transition,
having just relocated back to Afghanistan from Sudan. The 1998 African
Embassy bombings and Bin Laden's 1998 fatwā marked a turning
point, with bin Laden intent on attacking the United States.
 In December 1998, the Director of Central Intelligence
Counterterrorist Center reported to the president that al-Qaeda was
preparing for attacks in the USA, including the training of personnel to
hijack aircraft.
 In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden gave approval for Mohammed to
go forward with organizing the plot.
 A series of meetings occurred in spring of 1999, involving Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy Mohammed Atef.
 Mohammed provided operational support for the plot,
including target selections and helping arrange travel for the
hijackers.
 Bin Laden overruled Mohammed, rejecting some potential
targets such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles because
"there was not enough time to prepare for such an operation".
 Bin Laden provided leadership for the plot, along with
financial support, and was involved in selecting participants
for the plot.
 Bin Laden initially selected Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-
Mihdhar, both experienced jihadists who fought in Bosnia.
 Hazmi and Mihdhar arrived in the United States in mid-
January 2000, after traveling to Malaysia to attend the Kuala
Lumpur al-Qaeda Summit.
 In spring 2000, Hazmi and Mihdhar took flying lessons in San
Diego, California, but both spoke little English, did not do well
with flying lessons, and eventually served as "muscle" hijackers.
 In late 1999, a group of men from Hamburg, Germany arrived in
Afghanistan, including Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Ziad
Jarrah, and Ramzi Binalshibh.
 Bin Laden selected these men for the plot, as they were
educated, could speak English, and had experience living in the
west.
 New recruits were routinely screened for special skills, which
allowed Al Qaeda leaders to also identify Hani Hanjour, who
already had a commercial pilot's license, for the plot.
 Hanjour arrived in San Diego on December 8, 2000, joining
Hazmi.
 They soon left for Arizona, where Hanjour took refresher
training.
 Marwan al-Shehhi arrived at the end of May 2000, while Atta
arrived on June 3, 2000, and Jarrah arrived on June 27, 2000.
 Binalshibh applied several times for a visa to the United
States, but as a Yemeni, he was rejected out of concerns he
would overstay his visa and remain as an illegal immigrant.
 Binalshibh remained in Hamburg, providing coordination
between Atta and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The three
Hamburg cell members all took pilot training in south Florida.
 In spring 2001, the muscle hijackers began arriving in the
United States.
 In July 2001, Atta met with Binalshibh in Spain, where they
coordinated details of the plot, including final target selection.
 Binalshibh also passed along Bin Laden's wish for the attacks
to be carried out as soon as possible.
 Plan Flow

Osama

Khalid
Mohammed
19 Hijackers
Hijackers
The Future World Trade Centre
World Trade Centre-Construction Site 2010